Department of Anthropology

Penn State University

David L. Webster

Professor of Archaeological Anthropology

Faculty Image Office: 323 Carpenter Building
Telephone: (814) 865-1897 Fax: (814) 863-1474
Email:

dxw16@psu.edu

Curriculum Vitae
 

EDUCATION:

  • B.A., University of Minnesota, 1965
  • M.A., University of Minnesota, 1967
  • Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1972

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION

Dr. Webster focuses on Mesoamerican, especially Lowland Maya, archaeology.  

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES AND INTERESTS:

Areas of topical interest include cultural evolution, particularly the origin of complex societies; cultural ecology; and prehistoric warfare, settlement patterns, household archaeology, and demographic reconstructions.  Professor Webster recently completed four seasons of settlement surveys and household excavations around the Classic Maya site of Piedras Negras, in northwestern Guatemala.  His current project, funded by the National Science Foundation, is a re-examination of the large system of apparently defensive earthworks at Tikal, one of the largest of all Classic Maya centers.

RECENT PROJECTS:

 Professor Webster's most recent project was Re-evaluation of the Earthworks at Tikal, Guatemala, funded by the National Science Foundation.  Fieldwork was completed in 2003 and results of the project are reported in  Webster et. al. The Tikal Earthworks Revisited, Occasional Paper in Anthropology No. 28, Dept. of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University (see display of cover).  This monograph can be ordered directly from the Anthropology Department.  A new NSF proposal (submitted June 2004) will hopefully allow a second stage of more intense research on the earthworks in 2005.

FIELDWORK:

Dr. Webster's recent fieldwork has been conducted in the Copan Valley of Honduras, and it emphasizes changes over time in population size, settlement distribution, and ecological setting. He is also now part of a long-term project at the classic Maya center of Piedras Negras, Guatemala that will last through 2002.

COURSES TAUGHT:

  • ANTH 008 Aztecs, Mayas, and Incas
  • ANTH 009 Rise of Civilization in the Old World
  • ANTH 321W Intellectual Background of Archaeology
  • ANTH 422 Meso-American Archaeology and Ethnography
  • ANTH 545 Archaeology Seminar

RECENT PUBLICATIONS:

  • Webster, David, Barbara Fash, Randolph Widmer, and Scott Zeleznik - The Skyband Group.  Journal of Field Archaeology 25:3:318-344 (1988).

    Abstract: The Skyband Group is a major Classic Maya elite residence at Copan, Honduras, excavated   in 1990. It is notable for its complex facade sculpture, particularly a skyband throne or bench. The site was occupied after the political collapse at Copan, and its excavation demonstrates the methodology of elite household excavations.

  • Webster, David - Status Rivalry Warfare: Some Maya - Polynesian Comparisons.  In Archaic States,  Gary Feinman and Joyce Marcus eds., School  of American Research, Santa Fe (1998), pp. 311-352.

    Abstract: This paper investigates the the conduct of Classic Maya warfare with overt comparisons to better documented traditions of Polynesian war.  Issues include military tactics and strategy, fortifications, and the relationship between warfare and ritual, political economy.  Central to the argument is that much warfare was caused by status rivalry among kings and nobles, who as agents or factions used war to pursue their political ends;

  • Webster, David - Ancient Maya Warfare.  In War and Society in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds, Kurt Raaflaub and Nathan Rosenstien eds., Harvard University Press, Cambridge (1999), pp. 333-360.

    Abstract:  This paper reviews what we know, or can reasonably reconstruct, concerning ancient Maya warfare.  The emphasis is on the Classic Maya, but the Postclassic Maya are also discussed.  Warfare is examined within the larger contexts of Maya society, environment, technology, and political structure, and comparisons are made with warfare as manifested by other ancient civilizations, many of them reviewed in other articles in this volume.

  • Webster, David - The Archaeology of Copan, Honduras.  Journal of Archaeological Research 7:11:1-53 (1999).

    Abstract: Copan has one of the longest research histories of any Classic Maya center.  This overview article summarizes this research, including environmental setting, dynastic history and settlement history, paleodemography, paleopathology, political organization, trade, warfare, and the Classic Maya collapse.

  • Webster, David, Anncorinne Freter, and Nancy Gonlin - Copan: The Rise and Fall of a Classic Maya Kingdom.  Harcourt Brace, Fort Worth (2000).

    Abstract: This book presents a summary of more than a century of work at the Classic Maya Copan kingdom.  It reviews the findings of many different projects, but particularly focuses on regional settlement reconstruction, demography, and agricultural history as revealed by a series of Penn State or Penn State related projects that began in 1980.  There is a strong emphasis on research design and methodology, with much specific information on political history and processes, isotopic studies of paleonutrition, paleodemographic reconstructions, palynology, household archaeology, the application and implications of AMS radiocarbon and obsidian hydration methods, warfare, trade and exchange, and the Maya collapse.

  • Webster, David, AnnCorinne Freter and nancy Gonlin - Copan: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Maya Center. Harcourt Brace, Fort Worth (2000)

  • Susan T. Evans and David Webster, eds. Encyclopedia of Ancient Mesoamerica and Central America. Routledge, New York (2001)

  • Webster, David - The Fall of the Ancient Maya. Thames and Hudson Ltd, London (2002).

  • Webster, David and Stephen Houston--Piedras Negras: The Growth and Decline of a Classic Maya Court Center.  In Urbanism in Mesoamerica, W. T. Sanders, A, G, Mastache and R. H. Cobean, eds.  Joint publication of the Instituto Nacional de Anthroplogia e Historia and The Pennsylvania State University (2003), ppl 427-450.

  • Webster, David, Jay Silverstein, Timothy Murtha, Horacio Martinez, and Kirk Straight.---The Tikal Earthworks Revisited.  Occasional Paper in Anthropolology No. 28, Dept. of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University (2004), University Park

  • Webster, David, AnnCorinne Freter and Rebecca Storey--Dating Copan Culture History: Implications for the Terminal Classic and the Collapse.  In The Terminal Classic in the Maya Lowlands, A. Demarest, P. Rice, and D. Rice, eds., University Press of Colorado, Boulder (2004) pp. 231-259